How Black Sabbath managed to release their sophomore album 'Paranoid' the same year they released their excellent self-titled album is, in itself, rather amazing. The Brummies chose to go for a darker theme than the 'peace and love' charade at the time, and did so to great effect. While Black Sabbath used themes such as occultism, black magic and fantasy in their first record, they chose to use actual horror themes from real life for 'Paranoid', such as war and nuclear weaponry; something that's very evident in songs like "War Pigs", "Electric Funeral" and "Hand of Doom", but there are more fantasy-based songs on here, too, such as "Planet Caravan" and "Iron Man".
Apart from the lyrical themes, the music itself is somewhat different from the 'Black Sabbath' album. 'Black Sabbath' was heavily inspired by blues and it was the dominating element, but on 'Paranoid' the blues have taken a back-seat to a more wild and heavy approach. The song "Paranoid" is a great example of this. It's very simple, the beat is steady and the tempo remains on a relative fast note. There are of course strong blues moments present, too. "War Pigs" is essentially a heavy as shit blues rocker and features a mean solo by Iommi towards the mid-section of the song before it breaks into a part known as "Luke's Wall" which; needless to say, is awesome. And this is clearly a sign that Black Sabbath are becoming more and more progressive with their sound. Furthermore, "Fairies Wear Boots" is an even better example of this, as it's even bluesier than "War Pigs" and has got some strange, but very cool tempo changes. Speaking of new sounds, "Planet Caravan" is a trippy, spacey ballad about flying through space with your lover. Isn't that rad? It's a very good, relaxed tune nestled between the wild, bluesy metal fest.
There are other goodies on this album. "Electric Funeral" is evil. Just pure evil. "Hand of Doom" is mellow metal track with a bass opening and general formula that has been copied by countless of bands over and over again... some chill bass with laid-back drumming, somewhat quiet vocals, and then BOOM guitar crashes in loudly. "Rat Salad" is a brief instrumental where the focus shifts onto Ward's drumming. And then of course there is "Iron Man", whose opening riff is known to most people, be they fans of metal or not. Also, Ozzy's vocals seemed sharper and better than on their debut album, so that's also a plus.
Overall, 'Paranoid' seems more thought out and focused than its predecessor. Although, the band states that 'Paranoid' was written while on tour, they somehow managed to make it sound like something they had been concentrating on writing for much longer. Heck, the song "Paranoid" was written as a last-minute filler. It took them about 20 minutes to create and finish it, and it became one of the most famous heavy rock songs ever. Whatever the Sabs were doing during this time, it was working.
Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Official promo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Official promo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
